"Space Jam: A New Legacy" Feature Talkback (Spoilers)

[RoyalRubble]

Welcome to the Jam!
​

Space Jam: A New Legacy
Release Date - July 16, 2021 in Theaters and on HBO Max (available for 31 days)

Synopsis: NBA champion and global icon LeBron James goes on an epic adventure alongside timeless Tune Bugs Bunny with the animated/live-action event Space Jam: A New Legacy, from director Malcolm D. Lee and an innovative filmmaking team including Ryan Coogler and Maverick Carter. This transformational journey is a manic mashup of two worlds that reveals just how far some parents will go to connect with their kids. When LeBron and his young son Dom are trapped in a digital space by a rogue A.I., LeBron must get them home safe by leading Bugs, Lola Bunny and the whole gang of notoriously undisciplined Looney Tunes to victory over the A.I.’s digitized champions on the court: a powered-up roster of professional basketball stars as you’ve never seen them before. It’s Tunes versus Goons in the highest-stakes challenge of his life, that will redefine LeBron’s bond with his son and shine a light on the power of being yourself. The ready-for-action Tunes destroy convention, supercharge their unique talents and surprise even “King” James by playing the game their own way.

James stars alongside Oscar nominee Don Cheadle (the Avengers films, Hotel Rwanda), Khris Davis (Judas and the Black Messiah, TV’s Atlanta), Sonequa Martin-Green (TV’s The Walking Dead, Star Trek: Discovery), newcomer Cedric Joe, Jeff Bergman (Looney Tunes Cartoons), Eric Bauza (Looney Tunes Cartoons), and Zendaya (upcoming Dune, Malcolm & Marie).

Lee (Girls Trip, Night School) directs from a screenplay by Juel Taylor & Tony Rettenmaier & Keenan Coogler & Terence Nance and Jesse Gordon and Celeste Ballard, story by Juel Taylor & Tony Rettenmaier & Keenan Coogler & Terence Nance and Terence Nance. Based on Space Jam, written by Leo Benvenuti & Steve Rudnick and Timothy Harris & Herschel Weingrod. The film’s producers are Ryan Coogler, LeBron James, Maverick Carter and Duncan Henderson, and the executive producers are Sev Ohanian, Zinzi Coogler, Allison Abbate, Jesse Ehrman, Jamal Henderson, Spencer Beighley, Justin Lin, Terence Nance and Ivan Reitman.

The director’s behind-the-scenes creative team includes director of photography Salvatore Totino (Spider-Man: Homecoming), animation producer Troy Nethercott (Wonder Park), production designers Kevin Ishioka (The Mule), Akin McKenzie (Netflix’s When They See Us) and Clint Wallace (upcoming Eternals), editor Bob Ducsay (Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Star Wars Episode VIII – The Last Jedi) and costume designer Melissa Bruning (Rampage, War for the Planet of the Apes). The music is by Kris Bowers (Greenbook, Netflix’s Bridgerton).

Comments?

Mod Note: We appreciate and encourage discussion, but please keep your posts civil, relevant and insightful. Please do not post any improper or inflammatory material, as we will issue warnings if we believe it necessary. And remember to keep the discussion ON-TOPIC!

Related links:
"Space Jam 2" Pre-Release News & Discussion Thread (Spoilers)
"Space Jam" Movie Talkback Thread (Spoilers)
"Teen Titans Go! See Space Jam" Animated Feature Talkback (Spoilers)
Teen Titans Go! "The Cruel Giggling Ghoul" Talkback (Spoilers) - Guest-starring LeBron James
"Tom & Jerry (2021)" Feature Talkback (Spoilers)
"SCOOB!" Feature Talkback (Spoilers)
"Looney Tunes Cartoons" News & Discussion Thread
"Looney Tunes Cartoons" Series Talkback (Spoilers)

 

[Streaker Prower]

I think there is a deleted scene where Bugs and Lebron go to the Ben 10 Planet and find Tweety finding the Omnitrix

 

[Pooky]

I'm giving it 3\5. I'm not saying it's a great movie, even 3\5 is probably a bit generous, but I will say it's closer to the movie I hoped Space Jam would be when I was 10. From its worldbuilding to the major conceit of the final basketball game it makes a genuine if sometimes misdirected effort to engage with the LT staple as characters and personalities, not just those guys who look good on T-Shirts. It's also better than Scoob and the Tom & Jerry movie IMO. A decent effort.

 

[Classic Speedy]

Probably my favorite part of the movie was picking out Space Ghost in the background of one scene. There were so many cameos in here- clearly WB took advantage of their vast catalogue simply because they could.

The sole laugh I had was the "I got Michael Jordan!" gag- I predicted the punchline the second it started but it was still amusing the way it was executed.

I dunno though, maybe I'm getting curmudgeon-y but this didn't do much for me. When the Looney Tunes fail to make me laugh, that's a problem.

 

[cheril59]

Probably my favorite part of the movie was picking out Space Ghost in the background of one scene. There were so many cameos in here- clearly WB took advantage of their vast catalogue simply because they could.

The sole laugh I had was the "I got Michael Jordan!" gag- I predicted the punchline the second it started but it was still amusing the way it was executed.

I dunno though, maybe I'm getting curmudgeon-y but this didn't do much for me. When the Looney Tunes fail to make me laugh, that's a problem.

And the Warner Bros. and the Warner Sister!

 

[Action!]

I thought the movie was meh. The story is a bit weaker than the last film. The visuals and the animation looks great though.
6.5/10

 

[Pooky]

SPOILER


Does anyone else suspect the final scene with Bugs was a last minute change? They have to have had something cleverer than that up their sleeves at some point. About the cheapest live action\animation combo scene you could possibly do too. I thought it was going to tie in with the glitching Game Boy from the start.



END SPOILER

 

[Daikun]

Now that this movie is officially out, let's see the many alternate timelines in which you could have seen the sequel.

 

[Moe]

There is my review about Space Jam: A New Legacy.

I gave 7/10

Most liked: They put almost all of Hanna-Barbera cartoons, along with a lot of characters that are owned by WB like Game of Thrones, Harry Potters, Matrix, Rick and Morty, Kong, IT clown, DC characters, The Iron Giant, Animaniacs and others more. Impressive CGI. Great to turn the real basketball into video game. Perfect crossover ever.

Most disliked: Pepé Le Pew isn't included in this film due to outrageous political correctness. They should emphasize on Hanna-Barbera characters like traveling to Jellystone.

@powerjake I want to let you know about this film convinced me that WB did great job with 3D CGI, so I think that we may need to reboot of H-B shows in 3D CGI, so you made a great point about CGI.

 

[SweetShop209]

Apparently, Dave Alvarez worked as an animator on the movie back in 2019, but he wasn't credited in the movie despite many of his designs being used in the movie.

 

[powerjake]

@powerjake I want to let you know about this film convinced me that WB did great job with 3D CGI, so I think that we may need to reboot of H-B shows in 3D CGI, so you made a great point about CGI.

See what I mean, CGI is a far better choice than flash a.nimation.

I thought the movie was meh. The story is a bit weaker than the last film. The visuals and the animation looks great though.
6.5/10

Space Jam: A New Legacy is very much a Warner Bros fanfic with a shameless and tired exercise in IP-driven branding.

 

[Fone Bone]

Space Jam: A New Legacy

Where to begin? This blank page seems a bit daunting. Usually when I write my reviews I have a solid idea where things will end up, but no, this might meander a bit.

I think it's probably wise to start with my view of the original Space Jam starring Michael Jordan in 1996, to give some context for things here. I liked it. I was one of the few adults at the time that did. I thought it was cool. To hype the sequel (which can't actually decide if it's really a sequel or a reboot instead) Teen Titans Go! made the questionable decision to make an MST3K-style TV movie of the characters on that show watching the movie and providing color commentary. Nobody ever accused that show of brilliant ideas. Actually, that's a lie. Weird Al Yankovic as Darkseid is one of the very best things a DC Comics project has ever done, live-action or animated. But everything else about that show is kind of shady. Including that idea.

To that show's credit, unlike the MST3K guys, the Titans actually allowed the kids at home to watch the movie. Commentary was only provided in either establishing shots with no dialogue, or the Titans thoughtfully paused the movie to goof off. I felt like I actually saw the movie again. And I decided the movie was terrible, and all wrong for Looney Tunes, and all wrong for people who dislike dumb writing. How bad is it? Bill Murray couldn't save it. Do you know rare that is, and how few movies that have Bill Murray in them actually suck? Granted he's great in the movie, but he's the only great thing in the movie, and that ultimately helps nothing. Regardless of what my 21 year old self was willing to let slide back in 1996, 45 year-old Matt Zimmer has very solid ideas about writing and storytelling that made me view the movie through a critical lens. I am no longer a viewer who can shut off my brain and watch a dumb movie. I'm not saying I don't like dumb movies. To bring up Weird Al again, I love UHF, and that is bonafide terrible. But if I am to like and enjoy a dumb movie, it has to be enjoyable. Space Jam with Michael Jordan simply was not.

So I told myself going in I was probably going to take it easy on this movie. My view was "If it isn't outright terrible, I'll call it a win." There are some sincerely bad things in the movie, but all in all, I would not call it outright terrible. And yet, despite what I told myself beforehand, there is no part of me that considers THAT movie a win.

I fully suspect I'm going to be spending the latter half of this review destroying the movie piece by piece. I think my upcoming judgments are about to be pretty harsh and brutal, especially considering I WILL give it 2 stars, which is a lot more than I give some things I talk less smack about. But the thing is, this movie gave me a LARGE variety of things to talk smack about. So I'll jump at them. But since I AM giving the movie 2 stars (which it DID earn) I'm going to start off talking about the numerous good things in it. Won't that be nice?

First good thing to note, is a good thing it shared with the original movie. It's nice to see a movie with an all-black cast where race doesn't actually matter, and the characters are treated decently. I'm not saying I dislike political hot-button movies or TV shows. But it's nice to have a break from them. Dom being excited King Rhythm is black is cool, rather than divisive. Which is outside of a LOT of stuff in this day and age. I don't think how bad racism is in this country should be whitewashed. But on the other hand, positive representation is very important, especially for things kids of all colors will wind up seeing.

The next two positive things I am going to comment on are important because they fix glaring faults in the first movie. Chuck Jones sourly complained that Bugs Bunny wouldn't be recruiting Michael Jordan and all of the other Looney Tunes and spending an entire movie teaming up with them to defeat the Mon-Stars. He'd do it himself in seven minutes, plus or minus the Warner Shields. Here it's Lebron James asking for help from Bugs Bunny. That's acceptable to me. I doubt Chuck Jones would like this movie either, but it did fix his biggest gripe.

I think a large part of Space Jam's negative reception had to do with the fact that it was compared negatively to Who Framed Roger Rabbit. I didn't care much for that complaint at the time (live-action animation hybrids should not EVER be judged by Roger Rabbit because it is totally unfair). And yet, seeing this movie makes me understand one of the reasons I loved Roger Rabbit. It was all the crossovers. It was mindblowing to see Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny on the screen at the same time, and Daffy and Donald Duck's dueling pianos blew my mind. Now this movie doesn't pony up money for cameos from stuff outside of what Warner Bros already owns. But Warner Bros owns a LOT of stuff not related to Looney Tunes, and is was similarly pleasurable to see all that stuff crossover as it was to see Mickey and Bugs interacting in Roger Rabbit. I mean DC World is literally Bruce Timm's DC Animated Universe, which is how I always viewed it myself. And it's right there on-screen.

This next thing probably won't matter to most people. But I think one of the negative things about Space Jam that nobody really brings up is that it's practically a vanity project for Michael Jordan. He's the undisputed good guy, always knows what's best, and his family is totally wonderful, and loving, and conveniently absent. When Jordan signed his contract to be in the movie his agent must have worked in a clause that his personal life should be portrayed as squeaky clean and uncontroversial. Lebron James allows himself to be portray if as not a bad father here, than perhaps an entirely misguided one who has to learn how accept his son for who he is. I hesitate to put this observation in the section of the review marked "compliments" but it's certainly not a bad thing.

If June Foray was still alive she'd be like what 106, right? She'd be less the oldest actress in Hollywood, and more like the youngest person on the current Guinness Book Of World Records for oldest living people. But I kind of wish she had been alive to voice Granny's Crowning Moment Of Awesome here. It would have been a nice career capper.

The Rick and Morty cameo was fun and unexpected. And I HATE Rick And Morty!

One more compliment: I like that the Warner Security Guard is Black Jesus. Always good to see Slink Johnson getting work.

So now we get to the second half of the review.

I said I would consider it a win if it wasn't terrible. But at various points I thought it was. Not as a whole. But some of what I was watching was super embarrassing. I've noticed a lot of early online chatter about Porky Pig's rap being terrible. And it is. But the things that concerns me most about it is the fact that the studio actually put it in the trailer. They used the worst thing in the movie as one of its selling points. That does not speak to any sort of wisdom on either the studio or the producers' end. If they had actually been good at their jobs, and there was better quality control, (and frankly Looney Tunes gatekeeping), the scene would have been on the cutting room floor to begin with.

The Looney Tunes being CGI got a bit of flack online too. But it turns out those designs are actually supposed to be live-action representations of the Looney Tunes. You see where the confusion came from though, don't you? They don't look remotely live-action or credible, so I can't imagine how anyone could have seen them in a trailer and considered them anything but CGI toons.

I think I need to spend a lot of time criticizing Lola Bunny. To be blunt, I found the character appalling in the first film, and to its credit this film wisely doesn't sexualize her the way movie inexplicably and grossly did. But now she's boring instead. Lola is a problem character and the most problematic character in the movie. She reminds me entirely of Summer Penguin from the treacly Muppet Babies reboot. The selling point and interesting thing about the Looney Tunes (which is also true of the Muppets, for the record) is that they each have a VERY visible fault or character quirk to differentiate themselves from each other. Bugs is a smartass, Porky a pushover, Daffy a loon or a jerk depending on the era, etc. Lola in this movie doesn't have any personality besides that of the earnest female jock. Once she's made an Amazon in her introductory scene, arguably her entire arc is already over!

I think the thing that makes me SO unhappy about Lola here is that The Looney Tunes Show redid the concept entirely, cast the hilarious Kristen Wiig, and gave her the character fault of being obsessive and a bit crazy. As such, if you had asked me who the best Looney Tunes character was while that show was on the air, I'd have said Lola! And before Wiig, Lola was widely despised by the Looney Tunes fandom because of the first film and Baby Looney Tunes, but that polarizing animated sitcom, for whatever reason, decided to make Lola the best character. It refused to put the characters in 7 minutes cartoons with dynamite and anvils, and the entire cast antagonists with each other. And a lot of Looney Tunes fans resented it for refusing to live up to the expectations of what Looney Tunes should be about. Bugs and Daffy as best friends using observational sitcom humor rather than slapstick? Eh. But in reality the furthest thing the show did from Looney Tunes is take the token female character and make her funnier and more interesting than everybody else including Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. That made a statement, and whatever else The Looney Tunes Show was, good or bad, it was a bold statement. And one I loved.

I hear Kath Soucie probably has a sob story for how shabbily the studio must have treated her by replacing her voice with Zendaya after her lines had been recorded. But Soucie sucked in the first movie, and would have underwhelmed me here as much as Zendaya ultimately did. I'm not saying it's cool what the studio did. But it didn't hurt anything either. If you want to argue movie studios replacing long-time actors with stunt casting hurts the relationship between studios and voice actors, and I'll agree with you. But the proper Lola Bunny voice isn't Kath Soucie. It's Kristen Wiig. If they had unceremoniously dumped Wiig for a bigger name, I'd be outraged. Here, I just don't really care.

Also Wiig IS a bigger name than Zendaya, so there really IS no reason they shouldn't have cast her.

Teasing Michael Jordon and not showing him? Why am I disappointed in Michael B Jordan? It's the build-up. I'm bummed instead. There was no good ending for that joke. They never should have made it.

It's time to talk about the plot points that don't hold up to scrutiny. Really, Matt? You're nitpicking a Looney Tunes cartoon? Oh, yes. I do that every new Looney Tunes Cartoons episode if they mess things up. And this movie messed up quite a bit.

To start off with, King Rhythm was far too overpowered. The movie sort of made it not a factor at the end, by the inexplicable ending of turning him into a poster (which by the way is not a credible resolution) but the truth is I felt the game had no stakes this time out because if Rhythm lost, he could easily go back on his word and keep everyone there anyways. The Tune Squad winning the game was actually unnecessary, because if he had a mind to, he could keep them there forever for any reason he wanted. Expecting an audience to believe a Godlike character who has already been shown to be cheating, lying, and untrustworthy will keep up his end of a bargain / bet is unreasonable, stupid, and yes bad writing. Even for a Looney Tunes project.

Speaking of which, this next part is bad writing for any project. But when Lebron declares the algorithm the stupidest thing he's ever heard of, that's bad writing because he's wrong about the reason he hates it. He's all "I'm a basketball player, I don't have time to be an actor, and athletes are never good actors." And he might have had a point about those three specific things. Except that's the actual selling point of the algorithm! They scan him once, he's free to play all the ball he wants, and they can used stand-in actors, who WOULD be good at that job to make him look good! Basically he hates the invention for completing fixing the things wrong with athlete actors. The truth is the movie wanted him to personally insult the bad guy in front of other people, in front of the bad guy himself, so the bad guy would have stakes to want to show him up later on. But that is freaking nonsensical from a writing standpoint.

Speaking of which, I hate Bugs Bunny reappearing at the end. Don't get me wrong. I hated the death scene even more (It says a project doesn't understand Looney Tunes if it believes Bugs actually loves the rest of the cast) but the reason I hated it is because they made a big to-do about the death. If toons can't ever be killed, all the other toons should already know that, and therefore nobody should be crying over Bugs' dying body. It's a cheap storytelling move to tug at the heartstrings unearned, and a total cop-out.

Do you know what infuriates me the most about that specific thing? I knew Bugs wasn't actually dead the entire time. Which is what made the death scene so annoying and pointless. Don't forget manipulative, which is the worst way a project can ever make me feel. And the end is rubbing my face in how annoying and pointless and manipulative it all really was.

To make a long story short (although the review is already long) the sequel fixed the two biggest flaws in the first movie. And yet it didn't seem to learn much else from that movie's mistakes. I'm disappointed, and surprised that I AM surprised at how disappointed I am. My expectations were already super low, and they still weren't really met. **.

 

[Moe]

See what I mean, CGI is a far better choice than flash a.nimation.

I can see but new Looney Tunes cartoons used flash based animation.

You can make 2D with CGI, so it can be combined with flash if desired.

 

[powerjake]

I can see but new Looney Tunes cartoons used flash based animation.

You can make 2D with CGI, so it can be combined with flash if desired.

Looney Tunes Cartoons looked cheap in flash animation and something was off about it.

I think there is a deleted scene where Bugs and Lebron go to the Ben 10 Planet and find Tweety finding the Omnitrix

Did they really do that for A New Legacy adding Ben 10 to it?.

 

[Moe]

Looney Tunes Cartoons looked cheap in flash animation and something was off about it.

I noticed but better than abandon Looney Tunes entirely.

I prefer classic LT shorts.

 

[powerjake]

The original Space Jam already felt like a fanfic, the sequel A New Legacy is adding with the fanfic status with the IP-driven gimmick like Ralph Breaks the Internet.

 

[Moe]

I do think that add a lot of IP make movie more awesome and crossover, in my opinion.

 

[powerjake]

I do think that add a lot of IP make movie more awesome and crossover, in my opinion.

Warner Bros adding a massive number of references and cameos of characters in Space Jam: A New Legacy from franchises like Hanna-Barbera, DC Comics, Animaniacs, Game of Thrones, Mad Max, The Lord of the Rings, Wizarding World, and The Matrix, as well as films, such as The Wizard of Oz, The Maltese Falcon, King Kong, A Clockwork Orange, The Mask, Smallfoot, Casablanca, The Goonies, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, The Iron Giant, and It. WB is only doing that to brag about how much properties they own for their huge company.

Thats way too similar to Disney's Ralph Breaks the Internet which was packed with their IP just for them to brag about how many properties they own.

 

[Streaker Prower]

Looney Tunes Cartoons looked cheap in flash animation and something was off about it.

Looney Tunes Cartoons actually uses Toon Boom Harmony, the same software used for the 2D animation in Space Jam 2

Warner Bros adding a massive number of references and cameos of characters in Space Jam: A New Legacy from franchises like Hanna-Barbera, DC Comics, Animaniacs, Game of Thrones, Mad Max, The Lord of the Rings, Wizarding World, and The Matrix, as well as films, such as The Wizard of Oz, The Maltese Falcon, King Kong, A Clockwork Orange, The Mask, Smallfoot, Casablanca, The Goonies, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, The Iron Giant, and It. WB is only doing that to brag about how much properties they own for their huge company.

Thats way too similar to Disney's Ralph Breaks the Internet which was packed with their IP just for them to brag about how many properties they own.

you also forgot the Rick and Morty cameo Powerjake

 

[Eurbane]

Here's my review: Space jam a new legacy was great. So The looney tunes split up to other places in the warner universe. I like the batman theme during the train ride. They sure added over 1000 characters from the warner universe. nice cameo of the aliens from the first movie and i was hyped to see micheal jordan but it turns out to be micheal b jordan. I wonder if the warner 3000 will be a existing thing sometime in the future to be determined.